In some ways, Chandler's farm is typical of Northeast Georgia farms today. He raises poultry in chicken houses and hogs in another building, while cattle roam a pasture. He also raises some hay, but does none of the kind of agriculture people usually associate with farming -- ''row cropping,'' growing things like soybeans and cotton.

''Row cropping is almost non-existent,'' he said.

Farming in the northeast Georgia area has changed a lot in the past couple of decades, and it will change even more in coming years, Chandler predicted. But the main change he expects to see is fewer and fewer farms and farmers in Northeast Georgia, Chandler believes.

''There's a tremendous attachment you have with land when you put your blood, sweat and tears into it to make it productive. But in 10 or 20 years, unfortunately, I expect to see a continuing disappearance of agriculture in this area, mandated mainly by land prices,'' he said.

It's not complicated, Chandler said. All you have to do is look at the numbers, or just look to the south, where Athens is headed his way, and look west to see Atlanta steadily advancing.

According to the U.S. Census Bureau, Clarke County and the five counties that surround it -- Barrow, Jackson, Madison, Oglethorpe and Oconee -- gained about 58 percent in population between 1980 and 2000.

''Farmers and suburbanites don't coexist all that well,'' said University of Georgia demographer Doug Bachtel. ''The byproducts of agriculture are not conducive to suburban life -- smells, manure, spray from pesticides and insecticides -- and as a result, you have this never-ending series of conflicts between suburbanites and farmers.''File

In about the same time period, from 1982 to 1997, land used for residences or other ''urban'' uses has nearly doubled in the six-county area, according to statistics from the Natural Resources Conservation Service. The NRCS is a unit of the U.S. Department of Agriculture aimed at conserving, maintaining and improving the country's natural resources and environment.

During the same 15 years, cropland in the Athens area declined by two-thirds, converted to urban uses or pasture.

That scenario -- the rapid decline of prime farmland in the United States -- is being played out all over the nation, but nowhere is it moving faster than in north Georgia, according to University of Georgia demographer Doug Bachtel.

''It'll become a major, major issue -- the issue of prime agriculture land disappearing as more and more land gets eaten up by prime development,'' Bachtel said.

''The land gets very expensive and kind of gets zoned out of existence, and farmers stop cultivating soybeans and start cultivating developers,'' Bachtel said.

Disappearing farmland is even becoming a national security issue as the United States, following its longstanding policy of making sure food is as cheap as possible, imports more and more vegetables and other foods from Mexico and other countries where labor is cheap and environmental regulation may not be as strong as in the United States, Bachtel said.

''You have to look at food as a strategic resource, and you do not want to import your strategic resources,'' Bachtel said.

Atlanta and Athens are two of the fastest-growing areas in the United States, Bachtel said.

As land prices go up, taxes rise, too, and so does the pressure to sell.

And just about every time a farmer retires or dies, the land goes out of production, he said.

''The land is becoming too expensive to use for agriculture,'' he said. ''When someone comes in offering $5,000, $6,000 an acre for land you paid $500, $600 for, that's very tempting.''

Sure, land is a good investment, but that won't help Chandler grow crops.

''It's sort of hard to eat net worth,'' Chandler said.

Part of why farming -- row cropping, at least -- is disappearing in north Georgia has little to do with urban pressures, said Madison County Extension Agent Carl Varnadoe. Madison, Barrow, Jackson and several other area counties are among the top producers of poultry -- Georgia's top agricultural product -- and cattle. That kind of production is doable with a small farm.

But to make a living at row cropping, a farmer needs good soil, something that's always been in short supply in the Athens area, he said.

And increasing competition from other countries has made it tougher and tougher for American farmers to make money on basic commodities such as cotton and soybeans, he said.

But even poultry and cattle farming will become harder to maintain in this area, Bachtel said.

''Farmers and suburbanites don't coexist all that well,'' he said. ''The byproducts of agriculture are not conducive to suburban life -- smells, manure, spray from pesticides and insecticides -- and as a result, you have this never-ending series of conflicts between suburbanites and farmers.''

It's not just farmland that's disappearing, though -- it's a way of life that's going away, Varnadoe said.

''Farming is a way of life, and these folks who are still doing it are not doing it because they're trying to be rich. It kind of hurts my feelings when developers come in and take away someone's way of life,'' he said.

Farming can survive in Northeast Georgia, says UGA agricultural economist John McKissick. But it will require a change in thinking on the part of farmers, and a change in public and political thinking, he said.

There's one big competitive advantage for farmers here, if they will take advantage of it, McKissick said: proximity to one of the hugest markets in the United States, Atlanta.

''Anyone really looking to make a return is going to look at some kind of high-value product, and capitalize on the advantages that we have,'' he said. ''Our main advantage in this part of the state is the availability of a large, diverse market.''

It will mean things like direct marketing and specialty crops -- combined production and retail operations, McKissick said.

''Producers have to add value and rather than get bigger, get further up the marketing chain,'' he said.

Most of the profit in agriculture goes not to the producer, but to processors and retailers in between the farmer and the consumers. The more middlemen the farmer can bypass -- moving higher on the marketing chain -- the more profit farmers can achieve, he explained.

Proximity to millions of people will also mean increased ''agritourism'' operations, McKissick said -- farms where consumers can pick their own vegetables and fruits, farms where consumers can board or rent horses, places where city residents can take farm tours.

But people in the cities and governments are going to have to realize that farming is worth saving, and take steps to do it, McKissick said -- buying development rights, for example.

In a system where development rights can be sold, a farmer can sell the right to develop his land. The farmer is able to profit from the increased value of his land, yet it stays in agricultural production and remains ''green space.''

''Anything that promotes the profitability of farming, particularly small-scale farming, will help keep land in agriculture,'' McKissick said.

Such measures and other land-planning techniques are slowing down the loss of farmland in some states, and they could work here as well, he said.

Bachtel is also skeptical whether things like small-scale specialty farming can by themselves keep land from being converted from farmland to convenience stores.

But eventually, the need to preserve farmland is going to become a powerful political idea, he said.

In Europe, environmentalists and farmers have realized that they're both fighting the same battles, and have been able to do a lot to protect farming and farmland, but American farmers and environmentalists just aren't there yet, Bachtel said.

''In countries that have a limited supply of land such as Holland and Japan, the farmers and environmentalists are very strong allies, and they make a very strong union,'' he said. ''They both have the same interests. They just don't know it yet in this country.''

Chandler agrees with that. ''When you look at the land-use issue, it almost becomes a social issue,'' he said. ''Society as a whole benefits from open land. It is a quality of life issue, and it is an issue of clean air and water. All these things are benefits to society. Farmland, like other green space, helps produce clean air and water, improves the quality of life for everyone.''

But it's the farmer who's paying for it, and as long as the United States has a national policy of low food prices, it's likely to stay that way, Chandler said.

In a curious way, American farming is a victim of its own success, Bachtel said. It's just become too productive. Americans pay a far smaller share of their income for food than other industrial countries, and that has had not only profound economic consequences for small farmers, but far-ranging environmental implications, too.

''This society is based on cheap food, and to do that, we have to go into the intensive production model,'' Chandler said. ''Then the same people who want low food prices complain about animal confinement and environmental problems.''

The upshot in the short term, though, is that Americans will become more and more dependent on imported food, while the American small farmer continues to decline, Chandler said.

''In Northeast Georgia, ''You're going to see some people moving to specialized agriculture, with things like roadside marketing, you'll see a little agritourism. But the biggest thing you're going to see is the decline of agriculture,'' Chandler predicts.